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Soups

I have difficulty remembering birthdays and with all these I’ve forgotten this year there is also the first of my blog. The only one I can remember is mine, but only because it’s the day after new year’s eve. Anyway, next year we’ll celebrate the blog’s birthday with a proper recipe.

I haven’t been posting for a long time, but leaving Berlin and moving to Lisbon has not been so easy. I decided to came here in a month and arrived with only a few clothes, a couple of books and the laptop, I bought a new camera and find an apartment with a lot of kitchen tools and fresh herbs on the terrace. Now that I’m settled in I can finally post constantly, unless until I decide to move to another country!

This soup of this post is the one I used to drink when I lived in Poland. I wrote drink because it’s liquid, after removing the vegetables and filter it, and often served into mugs at the beginning of the meal. The best one I had was in Ro Raw Organic, definitively my favorite vegan restaurant in Krakow. It was lyukewarm and topped with fresh sprouts.

Barszcz is a versatile soup. Can be served hot during the winter, with mushroom dumplings (barszcz z uszkami) for the Christmas Eve feast, or cold in the summertime. I used my Polish friend Paolina’s version, that in my opinion is perfectly balanced in flavours. I suggest you to garnish it with all kind of fresh sprouts you have, I found out the amaranth sprouts you can see in the picture.

Start by preparing the sour cream. If you use a soy cream it’s enough to whisk it with lemon juice. If you use yogurt it’s better to make the cream a few hours in advance. Drain the yogurt in a colander covered with cotton cloth in order to remove the excess liquid. Keep it into the refrigerator until solid, then stir lemon juice into it.

For the barszcz peel and chop carrot, onion, leek, celery stalk and beetroots. Put them into a pan with water, garlic cloves smashed, bay leaves, black peppercorn and salt. Bring it to a boil, then lower the heat to a minimum and simmer for two hours.
15 minutes before it is done add juice of one lemon and keep simmer. Remove the pan from the heat, take out the vegetables and reserve for another use. Filter through a fine mesh and allow to cool completely.

Serve the soup by topping with sour cream and sprinkling fresh marjoram, sprouts and black pepper. I suggest to prepare the soup the day before to let all the flavours enhance. You can storage into the refrigerator up to 4 days.

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I am totally obsessed with soups and everything that can be pureed. This recipe is perfect in the summertime because you should prepare it in advance, refrigerate and eat when you want at room temperature. You could choose to serve this soup with an ice cube as I usually do. The ice cube melts while eating and allows you to enjoy the echoes of lime and ginger.